Pages

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The
use of Skype, Viber or any other internet devices to make or receive calls at
internet cafés in The Gambia has henceforth been banned.According
to a directive from the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, through a press
release issued on Friday, offering of international and national calling services
at internet cafés using Voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, such as Viber and Skype, is strictly
prohibited and considered an offence, although no penalty is specified.

More and more people in
the country now make calls via the Internet instead of using mobile phones or
conventional landlines.

“Anyone
who is engaged in this activity is depriving the country of the much needed
revenue from international and national calls, required for the development of
The Gambia,” PURA says.

The
Gambia News Onlinewas reliably informed that telecommunications companies in the
country have lodged a complaint to PURA, as regulator, that they are
experiencing consistent drop in revenue due to reduction in the amount of money
spent on recharge phone credit by the public.

This
is primarily due to increase in the number of people using internet cafés to
make not only international but also local calls, which cost virtually nothing.

However,
with this new directive, internet cafés are strictly prohibited from allowing
their customers to use the internet to make or receive calls via Skype, Viber or
any other internet services.

Implementing
this directive would cause serious confrontations between internet café
operators and many of their customers who have already used to making calls via
these internet devices.

Prior
to this directive, operators did not have any control over their customers who
buy time to surf the net.

The
only restriction some cafés have is browsing pornographic websites, other than
that customers could transact any business they want to online.

“This
is going to make me lose a lot of customers,” an internet café operator in
Latrikunda German said.

“Apart
from Facebook, most of the people come here just to talk on Skype with their
people abroad; now if Skype is prohibited it means many people will not be
coming here again.”

Using
Skype to call at internet cafés does not attract any additional cost apart from
the cost of the time one uses to access the internet.

For
instance, if someone pays D15 to browse the internet for an hour in an internet
café, within that time the individual can talk on Skype at no other cost.

Skype
or Viber does not allow for free voice call, computer to computer, but both
parties communicating can see each other when using a webcam.

“The
only time that I talk to my husband is when I go to the internet café,” said
Fatou Njie, who says her husband has travelled to the United Kingdom for
studies.

Fatou,
who is currently taking the West African Senior School Certificate Examination,
said she is not having a phone that is Skype-enabled neither does she have a
laptop through which she can communicate on Skype at home.

“Now
prohibiting Skype at internet cafés is just going to make it difficult for me
to communicate with my husband for a longer time like we do on Skype.”

Africa needs to mobilize US$3.6 billion to fully
fund malaria control plans and programmes from 2013 to 2015, WHO country
representative in The Gambia has said.

Dr Thomas Sukwa said this amount is in addition to
about US$4.4 billion already mobilised from international partners and African
governments.

Speaking to journalists in Banjul during
a press briefing ahead of the 2013 World Malaria Day on 25April,
the WHO country representative said there is need for increase in domestic
funding in Africa, where the proportion of domestic funding estimated as part
of overall funding was only 32% in 2011 compared to 43% in Asia and 86% in
Latin America.

“To highlight the funding gap, a campaign for the
three years will be launched on World Malaria Day [2013] under the theme
‘Invest in the Future: Defeat Malaria’,” he said.

History has shown that decrease in financial support
for fighting malaria, particularly in areas where significant progress has been
made, leads to a resurgence of the disease, thereby reversing years of efforts
and investment.

“Therefore, it is crucial that we stay on course as
malaria resurgence will remain a persistent threat until the disease is
eliminated altogether,” Dr Sukwa said.

Successful malaria control is critical to progress
on all the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - goals 4, 5 and
6 - as well as making significant contribution to progress in other areas
including reducing school absenteeism and fighting poverty.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Say management of ferry services should
rather regulate operations of ferries

News of the increment of ferry tariff across The Gambia come May 1st
has been received by users with utter disappointment, as ferry crossing at the
Banjul-Barra crossing point continues to cause untold hardship to
commuters.

The Gambia Ferry Services Management Company Limited issued a
press release on Monday announcing that the tariff for ferry services across
the country will be increased by 25 per cent with effect from 1 May 2013.

In this vein, the price of ticket for individual crossing
Banjul-Barra, the main crossing point in the country, will be increased from
D10 to D12.50 when the new increment takes effect.

“I have not yet heard of the announcement, but if that is the case
I will be very surprised,” said Ousman Jaiteh, who spoke to this paper on
Monday at the Banjul ferry terminal.

“Instead of making normal the operations of the ferries and
reassuring people, they are increasing the tariff,” he added.

Ferry services at the Banjul-Barra crossing point have continued
to be a source of nightmare for commuters in recent time.

For Amadou Marong, safety and security of the passengers crossing
the ferry should be the primary concern of the management of the ferry services
because as it is now “people are losing confidence” in crossing onboard the
ferries (at the Banjul-Barra crossing point).

Samboujang Sonko, who is studying political science at the University
of The Gambia, opined that the ferry services made “a grave mistake” when they
bought ferries for millions of dalasis that are not pliable in the country
since they are never used after about two years they have been bought.

In 2011 the ferry services, through the Gambia Ports Authority,
bought two “new” ferries to the tune of €6,345,000
equivalent to more than D250 million.

Since the commissioning of the ferries
in July 2011, they are yet to make any commercial trip from Banjul to Barra.

“The ferry services should rectify their own mistake rather than
pass it on to the people by increasing the tariff,” the student said.

“The input that they said is one of the main reasons for the
increment of the tariff, the last time - like three months ago - I read from
the Observer [newspaper] that the Taiwanese Embassy here [in The Gambia] gave a huge amount to The Gambia
government to buy new ferries.Where is
that money, because since then we have not seen any new engine for the ferries;
in fact the conditions of the ferries since then has continued to deteriorate,”
he added.

In December
2012, the Taiwanese Embassy in the country presented a cheque for US$747,692 to
The Gambia government for the procurement of three new ferry engines.

Is
the Senegalese transport union informed?

The MarketPlace has tried in vain to contact the management of the
ferry services to find out whether the Senegalese transport union is informed
of the impending ferry tariff increment.

The last time the tariff of ferry services was increased in July
2005, it created a big confusion between The Gambia and Senegal leading to the
closure of the Senegalese side of the border by the transport union.

The insurance industry can greatly help in improving healthcare delivery in
a country by designing health insurance schemes for increasing accessibility
and affordability of medical services to the people.

President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma [Source: Salone Reporter]

The
president of Sierra Leone, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, presenting on the topic ‘The
West Africa said health insurance schemes are built
upon the time honored principle of the insurance industry for pooling resources
together to avert the consequences of life's contingencies on people.
Insurance Industry: The Challenges and Opportunities in the Light
of Recent Economic and Socio-Political Developments’

“Our profession (the insurance
profession) has often discriminated against ordinary people when it comes to
health insurance schemes,” the Sierra Leonean president said while presenting
his paper at the 35th Annual General Meeting and Educational Conference of the West
African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA) which started on Monday.

“Rather, we (insurance practitioners) put great emphases on targeting those
who could pay the high premiums,” he added.

The Sierra Leonean president, himself an erudite insurance practitioner,
said if the insurance profession should be at the centre of the new economy of
growth, inclusion and protection, the practitioners must be transcended this
mentality.

He said the insurance practitioners must seek out the various options for
including the struggling worker, trader and ordinary citizen in national health
insurance schemes.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The Young Journalists Association of The Gambia (YJAG) is to hold
a mega dancehall musical show with one of the most renowned DJs in the country,
DJ Pisces on 27 April 2013 at Romana in Bakau.

The fundraising is meant to gather more funds for
the association to embark on more capacity building programmes for its members,
the young journalists, for them to become responsible journalists in order to contribute
their quota to national development of The Gambia.

Lamin Jahateh, secretary general of YJAG, reiterated that proceeds
from the programme will also be used to implement a line-up of activities which
the association is to hold but could not due to the perennial problem of lack
of fund.

"The worthy goals of the association cannot be achieved without
funds,” Jahateh noted, adding:“This is
why it is imperative that we devise ways and means of raising the much needed funds.It is in cognizance of this that the
forthcoming programme is being organized.”

Nyima Jadama, public relations officer of the association, called
on everyone to attend the show saying “this show will be one in town”.Ticket for programme is only D50, she added.

The president of the association, Modou S. Joof, said all the
journalists particularly YJAG members are encouraged to attend “as the proceeds
will be use for the collective good of all”.

YJAG president called on the general public to
patronize the association and support the young journalists to achieve their
objectives.

YJAG embarked on its first ever
successful fundraising show in July 2011 at the Buffer
Zone in Tallinding with the popular Senegalese drummerSheikh Faaland his Group.

YJAG is an independent non-profit making organization and it is
legally registered with the Attorney General’s Chamber in September 2007.

YJAG has members from both the print and electronic media houses
nationwide.The objectives of the
association include promoting unity among young journalists in The Gambia,
providing capacity building, and addressing the welfare of its members.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

The
people of Niumi, specifically in Essau village, are now seeking spiritual help
from Allah to resolve the seemingly insolvable problems at the Banjul-Barra
ferry crossing point.

At
most gathering of the elders – be it religious or social – the elders now pray
for Allah’s help as though all human efforts have been employed but solution
could not be found to the perennial problems.

On
Saturday during the one-year charity of the late Alhaji Kebba Marong, who was
the muezzin of one of the mosques in Essau, shortly after recitation of Quran
for the deceased, one of the village elders said:“Let us do another ‘duwa’, supplication, so
that Allah can help in bringing normalcy and safety at the crossing point,
Banjul-Barra, because the situation there is not very good.”

Without
hesitation, the elders stretched their hands to God seeking His intervention in
the ferry services.

“Please
let us add more, I almost cross every week to Banjul.I came from Banjul just yesterday (Saturday),
the ferry departed Banjul around 2pm and we only arrived after 5pm,” one of the
elders lamented.

The
current state of the ferry services at the Banjul-Barra crossing point is
getting from bad to worse as the ferries that usually ply the distance for 30
to 45 minutes now spend two to three hours or more.

Often
times now, the ferries even get breakdown in the river and could be there for
hours without reaching the other bank of the river.

It
is understood that the engines of all the three ferries are not in good state.

The
state of ferry crossing is becoming more and more terrible by the day as the
conditions of the ferries, if anything, is deteriorating rapidly.

At
the crossing point in Barra terminal on Sunday, Maram Jobe said they spent four
hours at the said terminal before the arrival of the Kanilai Ferry from Banjul.

According
to Modou Jallow, a commuter, he arrived at the terminal at 6:00pm and
could not get a ferry up to 8:00pm when he boarded the Kanilai Ferry.

The
time waiting for the ferry is different from other hours that it takes for the
ferry to ply from Banjul to Barra.

Passengers
resort to risky transport boats

Many
people have now resorted to crossing by boat due to the continuous failing and
deteriorating ferry services.

In
the same vein, boat operators have also irrationally increased the fare from
D15 to D25.

Also,
people who carry passengers in and out of the boat have also increased the cost
of carrying each passenger from D5 to D10.

Now
the entire cost of crossing by boat which used to be D25 (D15 for boat fare, D5
to the porter carrying a passenger to the boat, and another D5 to the one
taking the passenger out) is now D45 (that is, D25 for boat fare, D10 to the
one carrying the passenger to the boat and another D10 to the one out).

Total Pageviews

About Me

The Publisher of this blog - Lamin Jahateh - is a professional journalist, with many years experience in journalism. Mr. Jahateh attended both national and international trainings on journalism. He is an executive member of many professional organisations, including Network of Journalists Against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in West Africa, Freedom House - The Gambia Chapter, Young Journalist Association of the Gambia, etc